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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

gelid, welcoming, colourful New Scotland - III

Yes, still writing about Nova Scotia. I enjoyed the trip too much! So here's part 3 of... say... 6? maybe?

THE BLIZZARD

Our drive from Peggys Cove to Lunenburg was quite something. The blizzard had indeed hit the area, as announced, and as much as it gave Peggys Cove a sort of romantic atmosphere, it really made me wonder if we could make it safely to our next stop. So, we agreed to drive on and turn back if things got nasty.

Our options weren't that great. We could either take the Lighthouse Trail, which was a lot longer, not necessarily well cleaned all the way through, but it at least offered houses and towns on the way where we could get assistance if needed. Or we could take the highway, which was a much shorter route, but where we could be exposed to careless drivers, maybe worse whiteout conditions, and where stopping somewhere to get assistance would be impossible... In the end, we opted for the highway.

Well, what was supposed to take an hour, took two and a half...

Also, we were driving, on a highway (on the Trans-Canada Highway!), at between 10 and 50 kmph (50! so fast!)...

At times, the only way for me to gauge where the road was would be to pay attention to the trees on the sides of the highway and try to keep at a constant distance from them. Or to follow the tracks that the last snowplough had left on the snow. Or, all else failing, driving over the little bumps marking the middle of the highway and using the vibration as an indicator that I was effectively on MY side of the road.

Fortunately, there was very little traffic on the highway (I mean, how many crazy people were going to be driving around when the forecast was whiteout conditions, right?), and the only slightly scary moments were when big trucks would pass by on the other side and submerge us in a small mini-blizzard where you really could see anything at all for 2 to 3 seconds.

Also luckily for us, the small road leaning to Lunenburg off the highway was been cleared of snow! yay!

So, we survived, without a single scratch. Hurray! And my only embarrassing moment was when we finally made it to Lunenburg and, turning a corner to go to our inn, I got stuck in the snow on the curb. Darn! It took 4 very friendly Nova Scotians and my husband to manage to push the car free so we could reach the inn... only to realize the snow was piled so high we couldn't even access the parking spot! Shovel time!

All in all, a good experience, I'd say. After all, I get to say I successfully drove in a blizzard!